Balsam Farms Zucchini Bread

Considering I live in an area positively filthy with farm stands, my use of local ingredients is embarrassingly lacking. I even mentioned in an interview a little while back that most of my shopping is done at supermarkets, preferably with weekly sales circular in hand. I’ll admit that there’s really no way to make a strong case for choosing aisles of fluorescent lighting over rows of freshly grown produce other than simple (personal) economics.

Shopping locally comes at a premium. And dude works for a non-profit—I ain’t got that Beyoncé money. Besides, it’s difficult to rationalize paying more for higher quality ingredients when, admittedly, I have the palate of an 8-year-old.(Look! A tractor!)
However, in an unabashed ploy to eventually unseat this song (TOTALLY NSFW) from the top of Google’s search results for “Stick In In Your Mouth,” I paid a visit to Balsam Farms. This way, I can say that I used their zucchini in this zucchini bread and ride that relatively recent wave of locally-sourced everything to Page View City. I’m also a big fan of the guys who run the place, so it was nice to see them doing their thing.

Is there a noticeable difference in taste? I’m sure that if it was grilled or roasted or some other simple preparation, there would be. But, for this particular recipe, not really. If anything, it feels better knowing that it uses a vegetable grown a just few miles away (as opposed to a few thousand). Just doing my part to support the local community/economy, that’s all.INGREDIENTS